The opposition and the ruling party both on Tuesday announced the names of their respective candidates for the upcoming Presidential Polls. While the opposition parties picked former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha as their common candidate, the BJP-led NDA announced former Jharkhand Governor and tribal leader Draupadi Murmu as their candidate for the Presidential polls.
Yashwant Sinha’s name was selected by the opposition parties after NCP chief Sharad Pawar, NC chief Farooq Abdullah and Mahatama Gandhi’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi opted out of the presidential race.
Now, with both names being announced, let’s take a closer look at their chances at the elections, which will decide the 15th president of the country.
As per the present dynamics, the BJP-led NDA government has 5,26,420 votes, a little less than half of the total 10.79 lakh votes and it needs the support of at least one regional party to prove the complete majority in the Presidential elections. The BJP-led NDA could prove its majority if two regional parties — Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and YSRCP — give their support to them.
With the BJP-led NDA announcing Draupadi Murmu as its candidate, the support of BJD is almost secured which means that BJP will comfortably cross the magic mark even without the support of YSRCP.
At present, the NDA is falling short of around 13,000 votes. BJD has more than 31,000 votes and YSRCP has more than 43,000 votes. Meanwhile, the MLA votes of NDA stood at 2.17 lakh while the MP votes are at 3.09 lakh. BJP has a maximum of 1.85 lakh MLA votes and 2.74 MP votes across NDA.
On the other hand, Congress has about 10 per cent of the total votes and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) including the Grand Old Party has over 25 per cent of the votes. Even if votes of other opposition parties, including the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which has backed Yashwant Sinha, is added, it is not expected to alter the outcome.